Panasonic adds Leica 15mm F1.7 lens to Micro Four Thirds stable

Panasonic quietly announced the development of a Leica DG SUMMILUX 15mm (30mm equiv.) F1.7 lens, which the company says will be an ideal companion to the DMC-GM1 also released today. Details are scarce at this point, but the lens will have a manual aperture ring and will ship sometime next year. Also coming in 2014 are a Leica DG NOCTICRON 42.5mm F1.2 lens, as well as a budget-friendly Lumix G 35-100mm.

In the meanwhile, Panasonic is further expanding the range of LUMIX G digital interchangeable lens with the development of new LUMIX G VARIO telephoto zoom lens of 35-100mm in stylish, compact design that also matches the LUMIX GM camera.

* Details of the product specifications, the date of release and the price are under study. ** For a body of digital interchangeable lens camera, as of October 17, 2013, according to research by Panasonic. *** Released on October 17, 2013.

No, it just PROMISES "15mm F1.7 lens", just like it promised 150/2.8 lens. ;)It seems Panasonic is about spinning their wheels and releasing and releasing standard zooms again and again and again... 14-45, 14-42, 14-42PZ, 14-42 II, 12-32... more standard zooms than years of the system... and the same story with slow teles - 45-200, 45-175, 45-150, 35-100 (slow one). 20/1.7 II, which is really 20/1.7 in a new body, is not exactly innovation either but wasted somebody's engineering and production resources, while proper (not flaring) f/2.8 UWA zoom is nowhere to be found, and essential 12-35/35-100 f/2.8 pair is overpriced beyond any semblance of reason.

You have a good point. There are too many repetition of the same thing over the last four years.

When they introduced the GF1, the 14-45mm was an excellent standard zoom lens with good optics and a metal mount. Then they decided to do a cost-down version, the 14-42mm, to go for the low-end market with the GF3 and G3. The 14-42 PZ was made to cater more for video followed by a smaller size 14-42mm. Now, they are making the 12-32mm which should have been the one that followed the 14-45mm. I am pretty sure it will have a plastic mount. Hopefully the optics are acceptable and as good as the 14-45mm.

With all this flip-flops, it is not surprising professional photographers can't take the micro 4/3 system too seriously despite its convenient size. They are making them to cater for the novice market too much. I really wish they can make a higher end product. I am sure they can but they are just not doing it.

The recent Oly 12-40mm f/2.8 is getting there but its not from Panasonic. Optically, this lens is above the rest and is as close as one can expect to a Zeiss lens. It has a full metal body with metal mount. It has good neutral colour rendition and has much sharper edges compared to the Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8. Something to look forward too.

Its not cheap but that's OK. You get what you pay for. However, its quite big, definitely too big for the GM1.

It is only a matter of time until Olympus comes with a set of f/1.2 or f/1.4 primes to complement that new PRO zoom.

The f/1.7 and f/1.8 primes are quite nice because of their tiny size. However, now it's clear that Olympus also wants to take the system in a pro direction, so I think we can expect faster/larger primes soon.

And to the jackass whining about equivalent lens prices etc... I have the fully equivalent Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 and Canon 40mm f/2.8 (on FF). The Panasonic takes far better pictures. A lens is not only defined by its specs. Image character is everything. This is why people pay thousands for Leica and Zeiss lenses rather than cheap Canon and Nikon lenses. You can't put everything in equivalences. If you would have touched one of these lenses just ONCE in your life you wouldn't be spreading this nonsense on the internet!

1.7 is plenty fast for a 15mm lens on a half frame camera. This is not a portrait lens, like the 25 1.4. This focal length is more for street photography, where more dof is desired for those spontainiou situations, and most experienced photographers will probably shoot the majority of their pictures stopped down to at least f/4 with this lens.

@Sir Nick: 25mm lens is not portrait, 25mm is standard. 45 or 50 is portrait. 25mm is for street photography, although 15mm can also be handy, but is more for landscape/architecture etc. I think 1.7 on 15mm might be disappointing amount of dof control, like 12mm f2 has that as well. I don't know why the majority of users would stop down this lens most of the time, to have high dof?

I think it is not so interesting for dof control specifically, but more for making images in low light, with high shutterspeed, with low iso and also with good sharpness at that big aperture setting. High iso isn't a big issue anymore nowadays with high iso performance, but lowering iso is allways better.

The 2,5/14 and the 1,7/20 are both missing OIS..this new lens too!IMO there should be a good stabilization also for wide angles like these, for photo AND for video. To compete with good and fast compacts like sony rx100.

The Manual aperture ring is a nice touch, that pretty much would eliminate my need to hit the menus or need dials on the GM1 for most of my travel shooting :) I suspect, though, that this lens plus the GM1 isn't going to be terribly competitive on price!

If it were a weather sealed version to go with the top tier bodies it would offer something new, but lens at f/1.7,1.8, and 2.5 seems redundant notto mention the 20mm Pany and 19mm sigma offerings. No doubt it will be superb but add something that PP cannot like weather sealing.

Honestly it seems like a nice lens, but created for an already crowded focal length range. They should have gone for something wider or longer to make it more interesting. I mean are there really many m43 shooters that were dying for a fast wide prime that didn't already buy one of the 12, 14 or 17mm options?

I would buy one if the optics are excellent. Currently, the 14mm and 17mm (both the f2.8 and the f1.8 version) are optically not the best. Even the 12mm needs in-camera correction for barrel distortion, CA etc.

However, the 45mm, 75mm and 20mm are excellent.

When used with the three lenses above, it would make an excellent little system for travel photography.

20 1.7 is a pretty decent lens, the sharpness at the centre of the frame is just superb. The edge resolution could be better, so is the distortion. What bothers the most is the focusing speed, which is kinda slow when compared with other lenses these days. Back in the good old days it's really hard to fault.

Great news for everyone who are using Micro Four Thirds system! There is a need for a wide-angle high quality prime lens, and I think that 15mm f/1.7 would nicely compliment two other Leica's MFT lenses: 25mm f/1.4 and 42.5mm f/1.2.

My 25/1.4 has a lot better image quality that the full frame camera with 50mm 1/1.4 lens that is left at home... Not to mention that Bokeh can be pretty ugly when stopped down to f/2.8 versus wide open on the 25mm. It is a great 'standard' lens.

Another possibility: If you've noticed that Panasonic G cams have 3:2 screens instead of 4:3 ones which would get the most out of the 4:3 sensor, it's not too hard to guess they expect you to shoot 3:2. And by cropping a 15mm into 3:2, you'll have something closer to 35mm than expected :D

Nice to see a Leica snob trying to rubbish a new Leica product, purely because it will be made to high standards by the Japanese. Do you think a Japanese lens is automatically bad? Do you think a German-made lens that is to the *same* standards will be the same price?

It is up to Leica to introduce new Leica lenses. And they have done so. Respect that, or diss Leica -- same thing. The Leica m43 lenses are entirely designed by Leica.

And they will out-perform the vast majority of classic Leica glass, that were good for 135 film but put them on a demanding 43 sensor and you will get big blur.

If these perform as well as I anticipate, the Leica name will not be cheapened, it will be expanded. Except to snobs.

The benchmark for these new Leicas needs to be the Zeiss Touit, with its top notch polymer frame and construction, top notch optics as a balanced optical product, and a high but appropriate price.

The Leica legend will then grow. I am pretty excited to see these announcements!

This will be an interesting addition to the line. In the 1970s, Pentax sold a 30 mm f/2.8 SMC lens for their 35 mm cameras, and in the early 2000s, they had a 31 mm f/1.8 "Limited" for autofocus 35 mm. So this new lens will be equivalent coverage on micro 4/3.

I think a 150mm, a 300 f/4 or a105mm macro would be great but a 15mm lens??? We already have 12, 14, 17 and 20mm primes (and a 9-18mm zoom) – do we need one for every integer focal length? We even have a 15mm f/8 for those of us that want to stuff a GF/GM/GX/Pen into our pockets.

This lens is excellent for sure! It is "small" but not pancake style. It will be good additional lens for building a system for Lumix G series, but not for Lumix DMC-GM1. She needs dedicated smaller lens to make it more proportional against its tiny & sexy body. Still salute for Panasonic to keep update their lenses lines.

Another lens option is always good. Those who do indoor, low-light, or street work will likely welcome this lens. For me, the 14mm f/2.5 is just fine, because I'm typically shooting it at around f/5.6. Personally, I would welcome an extra-wide prime (say, 9 or 10mm) more than 15mm.

a reasonably priced, small, good optical quality ultra wide prime is long overdue.I've been waiting for it since the beginning of M43No more waiting, Canon's 11-22mm STM fulfilled every wish. (it being a zoom, but with very good IQ)

@brunobarolo. In the English language, we tend to use exaggerated remarks to make a point or to try and better describe our intensions. This is just one of many nuances you will learn as your grasp of the language increases.

Another potential factor: if Leica is going to start putting the red dot on Panasonic m43 cameras (a rather vague news story floating around says Panasonic may soon start supplying Leica with ILCs in the $2000 range), they will need some Leica-branded kit lenses. This lens would be an obvious choice for a Leica-badged version of the GM1 and maybe GX7.

@yabokkie... I paid $599 for my 85mm f/1.8G, and it's not particularly sharp. If the 42.5mm is anything like the 25mm, it will be significantly sharper than the 85mm f/1.8G stopped down to f/2.4. Plus it comes with IS.

And in terms of DoF the difference between f/1.8 and f/2.4 is really small.

@yabokkie Or if you use the new Nikon 58mm f1.4 on an APS body the 42.5mm should be worth around $1200 :)

We've been though this before, you can't just make a direct price comparison unless image quality between the lenses is identical, wait til we have samples and lens tests then come back with an equivalent price.

yabokkie, what m43 lenses do you own and use and love? What did you pay for them?

IF, though, you are just a troll, then nick off.

If lenses are coming out for people who know that DSLR cameras are fat and ugly and sit at home instead on on one's hip, and make the owner look like a numbat when seen outdoors, then comparing m43 lenses to DSLR fatboys is the most irrelevant activity imaginable.

Does crop factor really affect light gathering? I mean I can see it affect DoF and obviously FoV, but light gathering? I'd think that if you put a light meter behind the PL 25mm f1.4 and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 pointed at the same light source, you'd get the same reading.

Yes. But the lens is being used on a crop sensor...not a FF sensor. So if a m43 camera with a f1.4 lens and a FF camera with a f1.4 lens were point at the same subject the sensors in each camera would see the level of brightness on the subject.

Endless trolling and bickering over 35mm equivalency has really made this site a bore. It's all beside the point: is it a good lens that helps the photographer make a good photograph? What other lenses are capable of on other formats is irrelevant. Your pickup can tow a 30-foot boat and my Jetta can't? Well bravo, but why should I care?

It was before my time, but I understand MF fanboys used to engage in exactly the same nonsense vs. 35mm losers back in the 70s. I guess most of those guys (and I'll bet they were all guys) have grown up or died off.

Maybe it's time for the current "crop" of 35mm fanboys to do some growing up of their own.

@Cipher: true, your field of view will be the same, and the subject brightness is the same. However, the difference in sensor size means that at f/1.4, your front lens element has to be much larger for the FF camera. Hence, the FF lens focusses *more* light onto the sensor than the smaller m43 lens. Or, if you would make a lens with the same diameter that focusses all that light on the m43 sensor, then there would be no difference in the amount of light gathered...

Light per unit sensor area is the same for all f1.7 lenses. Light per sensor is not the same if the sensor area is different. More total light would have contributed to produce the final photo in the case of the larger sensor. If you enlarge by the same ratio, then in the final displayed pictures, both pictures would have the same light per area, but one picture is larger than the other. If you enlarge to the same display size, the larger sensor would need a smaller enlargement ratio resulting in higher light per display area. It's all besides the point if you don't make efficient use of the more light you get, of course.